Lori and George Schappell were born on September 18, 1961. They shared bones, vessels and 30% of their hoops, including the frontal and parietal lobes.
Although genetically identical, they had two very distinct, even diametrically opposed, personalities. They lived for 24 years in a center for the mentally handicapped. But thanks to the intervention of the wife of a former governor of Pennsylvania, they were able to leave this institution by proving that they did not suffer from any intellectual disability. They had lived in a two-bedroom apartment, alternating nights at one house then the other since 1998. The twins felt they had a fairly normal life. “I don't wake up thinking, 'Oh, I'm a Siamese twin.' I have two arms and two legs. I'm just an ordinary person... I live a normal life," Lori told the Los Angeles Times in 2002. The only exception would have been the death of one of them, she explained, but then again, she did not separate them.